The Call to Humility
February 19, 2015
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James 2:14-20
Faith without Works Is Dead
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith without works is barren?
In our desire to share the word of God and the message of the Gospel, it is easy to imagine that we have something that others need. My experience of working amongst some of our most vulnerable citizens over many years is that we do not take Christ anywhere, rather we find Him already amongst the lost and the alone. Far from being the one to share the message, I have often found myself being on the receiving end of a new insight and a deeper understanding of the compassion of Christ when I have been alongside a person in despair. The Christ I thought I knew is always one step ahead and always leading me on to new insights and a deeper grasp of his meaning and message and a I realise how little I have understood Him.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, if I have ever thought that others might be the beneficiary of my insight,
my knowledge and my faith, give me the humility to see that I have so much still to learn,
so much growing still to do and that, sometimes, we encounter you in
the most unlikely people and circumstances. Amen
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